Driving-belt.



No. 841,680. I PATENTBD JAN. 22, 1907 J. A. FERGU'SON.

DRIVING BELT.

APPLIOATION FILED 1-23.20, 1904.

Inventor fl .Fe lay witnesses" rg-uson JOHN A- FERGUSON, OF BROOKLINE,MASSACHUSETTS Specification of Letters Pat nt;

DF tWINGc-BELT.

Patented Jan. 22, 1907.

Application filed February 20, 1904. Serial No. 194,495

To a 11-71011] if IIIIIIII/ conic/'1'.

Be it l\'l1t)\\'li that I, Join FERGi'SON. a citizen of the UnitedStates. and a resident of Brookline, in the county ol Norfolk and Stateol" .\lassachu: etts, have in ented an improvement in Driving-Belts, ofwhich tlle following description, in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, is 'a specification, like letters on the drawings representinglike parts.

This invention relates to driving-belts, and particularly to beltsot'this class which are provided with means to counteract the stretchingor elongating tendency ol" the material ol the belt when in use.

Driving-belts, as ordimn'ily constructed of leather or fabric, soonbecome considerably elongated in use, owing to the necessity ol drawingthem tightly over the driving-pulleys with which they are used in orderto give them the required gripping power and also owing to the strainsincident to the load upon the pulley-shalt. This elongating andconsequent loosening ol' the belt destroys in great measure its grippingpower, whereby it is rendered com mratively useless until the slack istaken up by cutting out a. section of the belt and reuniting the ends.This opera tion, however, involves time and expense, and, furthermore,the gradual attenuation of" the belt is necessarily detrinu'mtal'to thelife thereof.

The character and scope of this invention will be clearly apparent froma description of one embodiment thereof, as illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a plan view ol a brokensection of the belt, portions being removed to show the interiorstrtwture. thereof. Fi 2 is an edge view f thesection shown in 1* ig. land Fig. 3 is a transverse. section on the line 3 3, Fig. 1.

in the embodiment of the invention herein selected for illustration thebody of the belt is composed of the outer layers a and b of any suitableand desired material, preferably leather, and an intermediate layer orlayers a of a non-stretchable material, in this instance so-calledtilwr-board. Fiber-board is peculiarly adapted for use inthisconnection, for the reason that while it is absolutelynon-stretchable it is at the same time amply flexible to accommodateitself to the transversely-curved faces of the driving-pulleys, as wellas to the constant flexing in passing around the latter. l urthermore,in the imniutacture ol liber-board the pulp, which consists of sometibrous materialsuch as llax, hemp, or jute mixed with wateris s0manipulated in the machine that the great mass ot the tibers thereot arearranged in parallelism longitudinally of the pieces, which when-cut inthe direction of't'he fibers atl'ord strips, which possess the greateststrength in the direction of strain when in use.

\Vhile a particular arrangement and numberot laversot material has beenshown and described. it is obvious that these details may be variedwidely within thescopc of the invention. 'lhc intermediate layer 0 maybe arranged in any desired manner; but in the structure here illustratedit is composed of a plurality of strips extending in close proximitylongitiulinally of the belt. It is occasionally found to be desirable inpractice, particularly in the case of short. belts; to provide tor acertain amount of stretch to allow of easy play of the belt over thedriving-pulleys. To this end the non-stretchable layer may beinterrupted at intervals, as at al, and

the space thus lclt may be filled, if desired, with any suitablematerial at, Fig. 2, preferably unattached to the adjacent ends of thelayer 0.

By employing a min-stretchable layer, as above described, it is obviousthat interior grades of material may be used to form the outer orfriction layers a and "b, and said layers, morem'er, may be made up of agreat number of short lengths pieced together.

Numerous changes may be inade in the details and relative arrangement ofthe parts without departing from the spirit and scope. of the invention.

I claim 1. A belt comprising aply of friction mate rial and a ply madeup of parallel strips of laterally pliable but longitudinallynonstretchable fiber-board.

2. A belt comprising aply of friction material and a ply ofnon-stretchable material, the

latter arranged inaplurality of lengthsleavi In testimony whereof I havesigned my ing-transverse spaces bet-ween the ends of iulname to thisspecification in the presence of 10 'l jx g l l ff 1W0 subscribingwit/messes.

3. e t com risin'a 0' riction mate- 1 1 x T 5 rial and a ply of on-st eth ebk illillel'lal, the l JOHA P ERGL latter arranged in a plurality oflengths leavl Witnesses: ing transverse spaces between the ends of inl-MARY R. FRASER, jacent lengths, and a filler for said spaces. RALPHPOWELL.

